Vettel tops after exciting battle with Raikkonen
The result means Vettel leads the championship after starting the race in fifth place, while Lewis Hamilton has slipped down to second.
Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit is notorious for producing uninteresting races, but this was an exception, with a tensebattle for the lead and several wheel-to-wheel scraps down the field.
Vettel stormed into the lead from pole, building a five-second lead after eight laps in the sort of performance that won him 11 races on his way to the title last year.
“It was an incredible race,” said the German.
“We had a very good start, which was crucial. I was able to pull away from the pack which turned out to be a good advantage because we always had to go on used tyres.
“Kimi was quick, and so was Romain.
“It was a difficult race. Once he was close, I thought he would have more than one shot, but in the end I was able to pull out of a gap.”
Force India’s Paul di Resta, doing a two-stop strategy in contrast to the three employed by the rest of the main contenders, drove an excellent, studied race to take sixth place.
The Scot was running fifth going into the final 10 laps but was helpless to defend from Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, who was on fresher tyres in the closing laps.
Di Resta seemed poised to lose a further place to Jenson Button, but the Briton’s McLaren suffered a puncture with three laps to go and dropped out.
Rosberg was investigated for possible dangerous driving in defending from both Hamilton and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso earlier in the race, but was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa produced his strongest race of the season to take ninth, ahead of Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher, who battled up from 22nd on the grid.
Raikkonen was judging his rise from 11th place on the grid to perfection, his low qualifying position a tactical ploy to ensure he had more sets of new tyres to use in a race that all teams expected to be dominated by tyre management in the high temperatures.
After 10 laps, Raikkonen was up to third place behind Vettel and Grosjean and he continued to close on theleading pair after they had all made their first pit stops.
He passed Grosjean on lap 24, and then began to close on Vettel, who he caught by lap 33.
But the Finn could not pass the Red Bull and after they stopped together for the final time on lap 39, Vettel eased away.
“It’s always easy to say if afterwards, but in the end we were not fast enough,” said Raikkonen.
“I had one chance to pass Sebastian but I chose the wrong side.
“I didn’t get another chance. We gave ourselves a chance, but we didn’t do it.”
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